The relatives of Bradford's forgotten heroes who lost or risked their lives to save others looked on proudly yesterday as a permanent tribute to their bravery was unveiled.

The descendants of 13 of the district's men and women who were awarded the Victoria or George Cross arrived at City Hall to view a gallery set up in their honour.

The awards, which span 113 years, date from as far back as the Crimean war to 1968.

And among those to be honoured were two next-door neighbours who lived in Athol Road, near Manningham Park - Horace Cannon and Nanette Hanson.

Flight Sergeant Horace Cannon was stationed in Lincolnshire during the First World War when a pilot lost control of his plane and crashed from 150 feet in 1918. He was one of two air mechanics who rushed into the burning wreckage to drag the pilot to safety.

Speaking of his father's heroic deeds, his son John, 62, of Heaton, Bradford, said he had been a very modest man who rarely talked about the event.

"He was very quiet," he explained. "The medal was put in a drawer until he died when my mother put it in the RAF museum in Hendon. He would have liked this, the fact that he's being remembered. It's an occasion when it comes home to you what an achievement it was."

His sister, Josephine Stamper, 73, who had accompanied her father to the palace to collect his medal, added he would have been very proud, but nervous.

"It's wonderful that they're doing something at last because they all deserve it," she said.

And after reading an article about the event in the Telegraph & Argus on Friday, relatives of Bradford-born needlework teacher Nanette Hanson were also there to honour her memory.

After only six months of marriage, Mrs Hanson was shot by a deranged soldier who burst into her Dundee classroom in November 1967. She was awarded the Albert Medal (subsequently replaced by the George Cross) posthumously for saving the lives of her 11 pupils.

Her brother-in-law, Peter Hanson, of Shipley, said she had been a lovely girl.

"It was a horrendous episode," he said.

"Nan bargained with the soldier and told him to let the children go and said 'I'll stay'. He shot her in the back.

"We told my brother Guy, who now lives in California, this weekend. He was very honoured, but it upset him a little because he can't be here."

Council leader Councillor Ian Greenwood said it was extremely important to remember outstanding bravery and self-sacrifice, not only on the part of the relatives, but for the city as a whole.

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